Returning to Mannheim, Germany, the second GUITAR SUMMIT, Europe’s newest guitar event, will take place on the weekend of September 7 – 9, 2018.

Once again, the event will feature a complete program in Mannheim’s Rosengarten, and visitors can look forward to more than 120 WORKSHOPS, dedicated to guitars, basses, pedals, and amps.

MORE THAN 350 BRANDS ARE PARTICIPATING!

The list of exhibitors continues to grow! More than 350 brands have confirmed their participation, and they can be viewed at www.guitarsummit.de/aussteller/.

GUITAR SUMMIT ACOUSTIC & ELECTRIC PARTY

There could be no Guitar Summit without live music. Like last year, we’ll end the Friday and Saturday of the event with a Live Music Party, with Friday night being all about the acoustic guitar, and Saturday cranking it up to be loud and electrified.

Friday evening’s Guitar Summit Acoustic Party will be the grand finale of the Guitar Summit Unplugged Tour, which will be playing throughout northern Germany prior to the event, and which includes fingerstylists Magdalena Kowalczyk (Poland), Regina Bakhritdinova (Russia) und Illona Bolou (France). Fingerstyle guitar fans will not want to miss this show!

Only 17 years old, Marcin Patrzalek has already received the first prize at Poland’s largest TV talent show, Must Be the Music. Having started to play guitar at the age of ten, he has developed into an excellent fingerstyle guitarist with widespread success on Facebook and YouTube.

Heavy metal and nylon strings? Dutch guitarist Thomas Zwijsen is known for his Nylon Maiden project, where he plays classic song by IRON MAIDEN, arranged for solo nylon-string guitar. His flamenco-inspired playing leaves no question that this is a winning combination!

Last but not least, due to the overwhelming response from last year’s Guitar Summit, we invited England’s Jon Gomm back to knock us out with another breathtaking performance.

Saturday evening’s Guitar Summit Electric Party is bound to be equally diverse.

Marcus Deml’s blues-rock formation The Blues Poets creates a classic, organic, authentic sound, and with its authentic vibe, the band is a return to his musical roots of Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, and Deep Purple.

Sommerplatte, a band formed around Echo-Jazz prize winner Hanno Busch and bass player Claus Fischer, creates a symbiosis of genres by combining jazz with the loop-based aesthetic of electronic music and the catchy qualities of pop. Required listening, even for those who aren’t jazz fans!

The evening culminates with the Guitar Summit All Star Jam, where Thomas Blug and his Rockanarchie will deliver a rock ‘n’ roll firework with numerous special guests, including Uli Jon Roth and Phil X. As one of Germany’s most famous guitarists, Roth is known to rock fans as the mastermind behind the Scorpions, and he is universally considered a gifted improviser and respected for his fusion of tradition and innovation. Roth has been a major influence on international guitar stars such as Metallica’s Kirk Hammet and Scandinavian virtuoso Yngwe Malmsteen. Roth’s tonal spectrum covers a wide range between rock and classical. Canadian guitarist Phil X plays with Bon Jovi, and he is also a busy studio musician who can be heard on countless albums by artists such as Tommy Lee, Kelly Clarkson, and Alice Cooper. In Bon Jovi, he took the over the role vacated by Richie Sambora.

Also scheduled to participate in the All Star Jam is bassist extraordinaire Stu Hamm, whose innovative playing is can be heard with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, with whom he is a frequent sideman. Hailing from San Francisco, Hamm also tours as a solo performer and teacher, and there is no doubt that he is one of the most influential electric bassists of the last half century.

But this is still not the entire lineup – Once again, we’ll soon be announcing additional All Star Jam participants!

And the best part: Admission to these events is part of the Guitar-Summit ticket!

EXTENSIVE WORKSHOP PROGRAM

Once again, the Guitar Summit will include a particularly attractive and extensive program of workshops. As such, SEVEN DIFFERENT STAGES will feature more than 100 WORKSHOPS revolving around guitar, bass, pedals, amps, and recording. The names of presenters are trickling in, and visitors can look forward to satisfying their desire to learn with a wide variety of workshops an clinics. Information on the individual offerings and further announcements will follow shortly.

I’M SOUND

Once again, I’m Sound will be a Guitar Summit partner. A branch of the Mannheimer Versicherung insurance specialists, the young company specializes in insurance for musicians their equipment, covering just about all the risks that a musician’s life may encounter. With its I’m Sound stage, the company presents one of our workshop locations. More info at www.sicher-laut-leben.de.

TUBE-AMPFINITY & BASS-AMPFINITY AT AMP WORLD 2018

Familiar from last year’s event, Musik Produktiv will be presenting its Tube-Ampfinity system. Allowing guitarists to combine and compare amps and speaker cabinets with the push of a button, this setup is a certain highlight of the Guitar Summit Amp World. And this year, bassists will be able to benefit from a similar switching system with the specially created Bass-Ampfinity, which allows the combination of various bass amps and speaker cabinets, again, with nothing but bush of some buttons.

Speaking of the Guitar Summit Amp World: We are changing the setup in the facility to create better room acoustics and ideal conditions for testing the gear.

STUDIOSZENE

Following excellent feedback from last year’s event, Studio Scene will return to the Guitar Summit. This is where you’ll find workshops and clinics with acclaimed authors, professionals, and first-rate studio players, who will cover all areas of the recording process.

EXPANDED BOUTIQUE AREA

Responding to the immense popularity of the Boutique Area, this year’s Guitar Summit will see this area further expanded. Many of last year’s exhibitors are returning, including several members of the European Guitar Builders e.V. (EGB), who will either participate in the EGB-booth or have their own tables.

FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL

Nobody will go hungry at the Guitar Summit! As was the case last year, a Food Truck Festival located immediately outside the event’s entrance offers culinary diversity.